


a bouquet of duelists

by femslashfatale (mikans_elbow)



Category: Shoujo Kakumei Utena | Revolutionary Girl Utena
Genre: Angst, F/F, complicated female relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-22
Updated: 2017-11-22
Packaged: 2019-02-05 09:40:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 850
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12791829
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mikans_elbow/pseuds/femslashfatale
Summary: a collection of various themed utena drabbles! rating/tags may change





	1. utena/anthy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> things you said that made me feel like shit - episode 11

The sky is crimson, and the sun is beating down on them with the intensity of the end of the world, sapping the energy out of every person in its grasp. Sweat rolls down Utena's neck, chest heavy with weight of a lead heart. She has been pushed to the point of exhaustion, her muscles aching and crying out for relief, but she won't go down without a fight to the end. Her legs stay standing.

For you.

For friendship, for passion, for the connection that I know you must have felt between us.

You agreed to be friends, didn't you? You've always wanted more friends, and if there's anything I can count on, it's the words I heard come straight from your mouth without pretense. Weren't those feelings your own? They have to be, because, because, because-

Anthy clings to his body without batting an eyelash, draping her hands across his torso with maturity beyond her years, and says to Utena, sending an arrow straight into her heart, piercing as intensely as Cupid's weapon and as painful as a warrior's strike:

"Farewell, Miss Tenjou."


	2. juri/shiori

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> things you said when you thought i was asleep - episode 17

Heart-wrenching pain - literally - erupted through Juri's entire body, a sensation so visceral and overwhelming that every part of her, for a moment, seems to disappear from existence. But it only lasted a second and then all her limbs felt like they were going to burn off into ashes, which might be the preferable alternative to whatever was happening. Her soul had been ripped from her, and by the person she loved the most. The only word left in her thoughts, repeating over and over like a mantra to keep her mind from going, was "Shiori."

Th breadth of the empty room made the silence hang heavier, the only noises being Juri's labored, sporadic breathing, slowly turning into occasional gasps, and then nothing. Soft, dainty footsteps trailed away.

This love that made her too weak to move was always, always, always just out of reach, despised, unrequited, an impossible feat that would take...

Her sight was wavy and more unreliable than a dream's, but she heard, while on the edge of consciousness...

Shiori stopped. The door hadn't opened.

"I don't understand you," she whispered. "Someone like you, who has everything... Don't choose someone like me." She pulled the creaky doors open and slammed them shut behind her, unrelentingly closed off. 

\-------------

When Juri awoke, she could barely remember the events that had occurred, but the locket strewn beside her limp body had been a clue obvious enough to jog her memory. The most important part, however, was lost.


	3. utena/anthy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> things you said when you thought i was asleep - episode 36(?)

It's been a long day. Anthy tries not to keep mind of things like that, because keeping track of time wears down her soul and she's learned that the hard way. With gentle, muffled shuffling, she makes her way over to Utena, who's fallen asleep at the table in their room. That's no good; she'll catch a cold in this night air. 

Speaking of night- the giant window overhanging their bed is a glaring reminder of the reason for Utena's little nap. The constellations that can be seen through the stained glass shine like the crystal earrings Utena still clutches in her hand, millions of gifted diamonds floating in the universe.

Anthy hates the stars.

She reaches out to Utena's face, and gently brushes the back of her hand against the girl's cheek, fingertips trailing across her content expression. Anthy pulls back. Why did she-? Her own expression steels and she allows the sides of her mouth to tug downward, but to anyone who didn't know her (and of those there are few) it'd be unnoticeable. 

"I hate you," she mutters. "I dislike your hypocritical and arbitrary sense of justice. Your naivety and dense nature appall me. How have you survived until now when you greet death's door with determination nearly once a week?" Her feelings come out all in one breath, deathly quiet, more of an intentional breathing than anything resembling a whisper, but Anthy immediately regrets speaking, for the pounding of her heart afterward beats so loud that it might alert someone to her confession. 

Everything and everyone involved in her life causes her pain that gets more and more difficult to push away, despite her experience in the act. Even love causes pain. In fact, it causes the worst and most traumatizing pain of all, a lesson that Akio never forgets to remind her of. 

Utena can die of illness for all she cares, Anthy lies to herself. Feeling ugly and sick in the heart, she retreats to their bed, leaving the unconscious duelist to herself. 

A minute or so after Anthy's back is turned, Utena flutters one eye open, unsure of what she's dreamt and what is reality, feeling that she's forgotten something. On the edges of her memory are the vague feelings of someone's hand, a promise from long ago, someone's important- something. It fades away like a morning mist. She drifts back into a peaceful sleep.

In the morning, she finds a cotton blanket covered in cute dog faces draped over her shoulders.


End file.
